Breast Cancer Statistics

The National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program

The SEER program, a continuing project of the National Cancer Institute, collects cancer data on a routine basis from designated population-based cancer registries in various areas of the country. Trends in cancer incidence, mortality and patient survival in the United States, as well as many other studies, are derived from this data bank.

Goals of the SEER program are:

> Assembling and reporting, on a periodic basis, estimates of cancer incidence and mortality in the United States

> Monitoring annual cancer incidence trends to identify unusual changes in specific forms of cancer occurring in population subgroups defined by geographic, demographic, and social characteristics

> Providing continuing information on changes over time in the extent of disease at diagnosis, trends in therapy, and associated changes in patient survival

> Promoting studies designed to identify factors amenable to cancer control interventions, such as:

Excluding cancers of the skin, breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women.

American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates for 2012 include 226,870 new cases of invasive breast cancer being diagnosed in women in the U.S. In addition, carcinoma in situ (cancer that has not spread beyond the original site) will be responsible for 63,300 new cases this year. Of these, about 85 percent will be ductal carcinoma in situ.

In 2012, it is estimated that 2,190 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer.

Year 2012 estimates include 39,920 deaths occurring from breast cancer in the U.S. alone. This includes approximately 39,510 women and 410 men.

According to ACS, the breast cancer death rate in women age 50 and older in the U.S. has been falling by about 2 percent per year, since 1990.

Breast cancer ranks second among cancer deaths in women after lung cancer.